Seven Words

When I was growing up, my parents had a stereo system in our living room. It was made up of a record player, that was white and light blue -- to coordinate with my mother's carpet and sofa -- and two speakers. These sat on a little stone shelf that came out from a fireplace in which she kept dried flowers. The fireplace itself was never used, which is good because the bricks had been painted white -- to coordinate with my mother's color scheme.

I remember several records that my parents had and that I used to listen to all the time. One was "Peter and the Wolf" together with the "Young Person's Introduction to the Orchestra," and three were humor recordings. Of these, there was Paul Allen's collection of humorous songs including "Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh," which was our favorite -- I actually made my brother write down and mail me the lyrics the summer I went away to sleepaway camp -- as well as a catchy tune about Louis the XVI's beheading. Another was a recording of Don Imus calling a drive through to order 500 hamburgers. Ok...

And the third was a recording by George Carlin that featured a piece known as "The Seven Words You Can't Say On Television" as well as some great material about being the class clown in Catholic school and how many sins were rolled into the one sin of wanted to "feel up" a girl in his Catholic school class. "It was a sin to think about it feeling her up, it was a sin to feel her up, etc." (I can hear that one in my mind but can't recall how it went exactly.)

I don't know if I loved George Carlin because of the brilliant musicality of his content and delivery, because of his unequaled timing and insight, because of his playful yet pointed mocking of authority. In fact, I can't even begin - at least not at 11:30pm -- to express why he was such a genius for me. But I knew that he was. In the last few years, I have continued to marvel at how smart he was and how talented he was to write and deliver those long, musical patter-like sets.

Recently, I was fortunate enough to see George Carlin perform at the Beacon Theatre here in New York. I regretted at the time and still regret that my friend and I were a few minutes late because we ran long at a Turkish restaurant nearby. But still I was fortunate enough to see him perform live. The show was themed around suicide, something that few people could pull off, and which, of course, he made hilarious. The most memorable part was the section where he suggested a reality show of people who would like to kill themselves on TV. I think he could have successfully pitched it to a television producer.

I miss him and wonder what he had been working on since I last saw him perform.

FaceBooking the Truth

Social Networking is like going to the gym. The more you put in, the more you get out. And if you don't go regularly, you don't make progress. Now that I've reached critical mass with LinkedIn and have pretty much abandoned the way too vast and, dare I say mass, MySpace, I've decided to spend some time on FaceBook. After all, work colleagues and classmates are joining en masse, and although I've been on for 2 1/2 years, I haven't made much use of it. (I'm being leapfrogged!)

While FaceBook seems to have all kinds of interesting functionality, I actually find it quite cluttered and not completely intuitive. While this may be sacrilege to say, here is a quick case in point.

When I joined in 2006, I used my post college e-mail address to gain membership. At the time, I was one of two people in my class who were members. This put me into a "Harvard" network and, because I listed NY as my home, I was included in a NY network. This seemed advantageous because it meant that people could not contact me unless they had some kind of connection. However, because I had chosen to use my college e-mail, I could not figure out a way to join the Wharton Network, which was somewhat disappointing. And, of course, at the time, high school affiliation was not an option.

Well, over time, FaceBook found a way for me to list these other affiliations, but adding networks is a bit more time consuming and complicated. I'll get back to you when I've mastered that.

In the meantime, I decided to take control and create some groups. One for my college class, one for my B-School cohort, and one for the 7 classes who were at at Ossining High School when I was there. Well, the college one was well-received by classmates, who were excited to join. HOWEVER, because I had checked the Harvard Network when I created the group, classmates who had not registered for that network when they signed up for FaceBook... could not join my group. (It took me a few frustrating days and some reading of the fine print to figure this out.)

So... I've created a new group. Instead of Harvard 1988, which still exists, this one is Harvard Class of 1988 and is not restricted to members of the Harvard Network. I now have three members... I lost a few in the changeover. Once I'm confident there are no other major glitches, I'll start to promote it. After all, the more I put in, the more I'll get out.

Twitter Me This

Twitter Me This! That is going to be the headline for my next blog, as soon as I fully determine my point of view about Twitter. After all, I am a new media guru, so I should be fully immersed in, engaged by and adoptive of "Twitter." It's been around for about a year, but it's the hot new thing. I've already started including it in brainstorms for my clients... (wish I could tell you...)

I actually found out about Twitter (and subsequently, Snitter) when I spoke on a panel about Careers in New Media at Columbia University, and the organizer of the event asked the students not to Twitter during the talk. Evidently Second Life and virtual worlds are yesterday's news, replaced by... Twitter. (I do like the name.) Of course, as soon as I had heard about Twitter via the student population, I began to hear about it everywhere.

(Side note: People in new media and in marketing should procreate -- or teach -- just to stay on top of consumer trends.)

Within days, I heard the term mentioned multiple times by the folks at one of my most cutting edge clients: Campfire. And then in the halls of another client -- the digital media division of one of the advertising networks. And I'd only just discerned the difference between a widget and a gadget! I promptly went on to Twitter and signed up to track my Campfire client and some of the Twitterers he recommended. Twitter asked me what I was doing at that moment, and I told it -- it wasn't very interesting.

So... now what? I tracked the conversation of one of the recommended writers, who was flying on Virgin America and reporting that the (very cool) in seat entertainment center now offered blog content. Well, that is kind of cool, but not necessarily the best use of my time in keeping up with important news. (Sidebar: I will someday write about the in-seat on-demand offerings on Virgin America, which are very blog-worthy.)

On a completely different note, I just arrived home from an interesting speaker event with Nina DiSesa, Chairman of McCann Erickson, who discussed her book, "Seducing the Boys Club." (I did mention this on Twitter, so there is a thread.) It was a really nice intimate round table conversation. So little has changed since I was young and struggling with gender differences in the workplace. Oh, except that as an independent consultant, the office politics I deal with have changed DRASTICALLY -- for the better. (Can you tell I'm in a good mood, which means I am very busy professionally at the moment!)

And there you have it. I really wanted to write because I haven't in a very long time. My client's client is blogging -- though in a very different style, so I really should too. I have many topics bouncing around in my head, and I will bounce them onto the virtual page soon. I promise.

Fahrenheit 48 -- So Soon?

How time flies when your career spirals beyond your wildest expectations. When last I wrote -- back in August... it was 88 degrees, and I was working on a little -- albeit nearly impossible -- project about high resolution business projectors. The project, by the way, required me to find a handful of experts in France, Germany, the UK and the U.S. who were deeply knowledgeable about high resolution business projectors. People joke that the French are all on vacation in August. It is no joke. The country closes down completely. And my client, who was Japanese, could not comprehend this at all and therefore could not appreciate the difficulty of finding even one person in this field who was not on vacation for the entire month.

Early in the month, I found the perfect person. I could not have asked for a better participant. He had the ideal background and was exceedingly excited about sharing his opinions and seeing what kinds of questions we were asking. The stipend we offered was a complete afterthought and really unnecessary. Then he disappeared. Completely. I called his home number and his outgoing message said that he was on vacation for 3 weeks and directed me to his mobile number, which, in turn, directed me to his home number. The way I understood this, by the way, was by asking a college classmate who is fluent in French to call the numbers and translate the messages. But that is not the point of this blog entry, and I have digressed completely.

In any case, as this project wound down, I was put in touch with a SVP at McCann Relationship Marketing (MRM), the digital and direct marketing division of Interpublic's McCann Worldgroup (which includes McCann Erickson). This introduction was made, by the way, by a recruiter who tracked me down on LinkedIn. Don't underestimate the value of LinkedIn as a marketing tool! A passive marketing tool at that.

The SVP and I discussed several projects, and I met with two other executives, but alas the projects did not pan out for internal and client budgeting reasons. (I was starting to learn about the agency world.) I therefore accepted an engagement with an ad rep firm called Interevco, whom I had helped sell an online monetization strategy engagement earlier in the year. The 6 month engagement was for Ancestry.com (The Generations Network) and required me to travel to Utah for the kickoff meeting.

Well, the day after I accepted this engagement, my MRM SVP e-mailed with a project for their Intel client. Ok, so now I had 2 projects plus the tail end of the Hi Res Biz Projectors gig. A few days later, I went to MRM's offices for the Intel project kickoff meeting and was asked to work on another project, this one for MasterCard. Ok, 4 projects and counting.

The next day, I received an e-mail from the Associate Publisher of a magazine at Time Inc. with a very cool strategic audit engagement that needed to be completed in 2 1/2 weeks! I had the initial conversation with the Time Inc. client as I was getting ready to leave for Utah (literally -- the car was waiting downstairs) and wrote the proposal in Utah. (This is where sleep deprivation started to creep in.) For those who are counting, I now had five projects. Oh, and the Blackberry I had purchased in August had already paid for itself by enabling me to book this new business.

So, there I was, happily and frenetically balancing five projects when one of my very favorite colleagues, Trish Hayward of Catalyst Strategies, called with a short project for a new media client with a user generated voice technology. The firm is Razz, Inc. Well, I could not turn Trish down, particularly because the value I gain from working with Trish often exceeds the monetary benefits. I think that we are up to 6 projects...

As Intel's main competitor launched a new product, and as the Intel team began intensive planning for 2008, I was asked to help with two additional projects. 8 projects in total, if I can trust myself to remember anything from this period of time.

I believe that I worked 7 days a week for well over a month, and I hired a colleague I had met at an HBS media guru breakfast to help out with one of the engagements -- wow, I was actually hiring other people. My only respite was when I forcefully dragged myself to a yoga or spinning class to maintain some form of sanity. Oh what a ride it was!

My Dirty Little AudioBook Secret

There are many many books that I should read. I'll go to a lecture or be in conversation with a colleague, and I'll hear, "this is a book you should read," or they'll simply start referencing the book, and I'll feel painfully behind in being ahead. Books like "The Tipping Point," "Blink," "Freakonomics" "The Long Tail," and "The Change Function" have become the media, marketing & business canon. But, much like the reading list for my college class in "The Literature of Social Reflection," there are jewels that I have not read.

So, I've taken to dual processing -- thanks to the powers of podcasting and digital books. While I work at my laptop (or sit in my car for alternate side of the street cleaning), I play, "The Long Tail" or twenty minute synopses of the latest business books. (You should check out Soundview Executive Book Summaries -- soundview.com, by the way.) But it doesn't stop there. I download whatever I can with respect to useful tips, tools and knowledge that might be helpful. So it was that I recently "file-shared" an excerpt from Brian Tracy's, "Ten Keys to Success in Selling." And over the past 6-12 months, I've heard it many times. And I must admit, there are jewels in those words. A few little nuggets that I find myself relating to or that are cause for pause.

So, here they are: (Please note, the lead up is much longer than the jewels)

(1) Only 2% of people are capable of working unsupervised.
(2) Launching a sales career is like flying a plane. You have to build up enough speed to take off, and then you can pull back a little. But, if you always work at the same level, you will never take off.
(3) When you go to an industry conference to hear the top performers in your industry, go up afterwards and ask them how they got where they are. Take note of the books, conferences and other recommendations they provide. And then do what they suggest. Eventually, you'll be the one on the podium.

I like to think that I am one of the 2%, so that makes me feel good. And I find the plane analogy relevant in a lot of situations. Finally, I've taken the third item to heart. One thing I like to ask speakers and executives is the following: "Media & Entertainment is one of the fastest moving industries there is." (That's why I love it so much.) "How do you stay on top of it -- particularly given your scope of responsibility and the increasing convergence (yes, I used the buzzword)?" It's a relevant question, and I've gotten some valuable responses. Try it.

Karen Levine
Triple Play Consulting
Media, Marketing & Strategy

Don't Do It!

"Don't do it," I told her. A colleague from my magazine days took me to breakfast to ask for career advice. She has 11 years of magazine experience and is reentering the work force after a maternity leave and a quick detour into non-profit. "Don't go back into pure play print," I told her. If you do return to magazines, make sure you have digital responsibility and interaction."

My colleague didn't think she had enough online knowledge to enter that world. "I don't know about search and all that," she said. But my feeling is that she needs to get up to speed on the lingo, the players and the trends. I suggested that she attend some industry breakfasts such as iBreakfast and NY:MIEG and directed her to paidcontent.org and eMarketer. She has more digital experience than she thinks as she oversees the redesign of her non-profit's website. I like to think that I earned my pancakes.

Fahrenheit 88: It's ComingTogether

It's 88 degrees here in sunny New York, and I'm reaching the time of day when I must get away from my window and retreat into the nether regions of my apartment. Having moved my car into a sweet unmetered parking spot that is good until Friday, I settled into the writing of my survey on high resolution business projectors.

Since I completed the survey yesterday -- translating it from a Japanese translation of a very long survey to one that is user-friendly -- my client forwarded a completely new list of the questions. Much of my work was for naught, but I can see the end of the tunnel now and will soon be onto the next stage of the project -- recruiting and tapping industry experts. I had thought this project was relevant to my media & entertainment focus only in that the client is an ad agency, but, as I get up to speed on the high resolution lingo & technology -- XGA, SXGA, WXGA, SVGA and all that - I see it all coming together -- once again. The world I have chosen is at the nexus of media, marketing and technology.

It all started when I was asked to create an overview of mobile marketing trends & practices for a magazine client. That led me to the world of SMS, MMS, MVNO and all those wireless abbreviations. A later engagement for a television network brought me a knowledge of multi-channel, satellite and telco television -- nonlinear, of course. And now, it's all about pixels -- which, of course, ties back to my high definition television engagement. That's only a small part of the technology I've inhaled over the past two years. It's very heady.

I am deeply entrenched in two books at the moment (as well as "Freakonomics"): "Television Disrupted" by Shelly Palmer and "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson. In addition, I'm listening to the executive summaries of a number of current business titles, more and more of which have a technological element to them. (The terms of the day are "wiki" and "open source," and I can't go a day without hearing about my IM buddy Jimmy Wales.)

I once had my skills evaluated to identify the best career. I was advised that with strong spacial visualization and math skills, I could have been an engineer. Ok, this isn't the same thing, but it's coming together. Exciting stuff.

Voyage Blog

I've just come from a meeting with Bill Sobel (http://www.nymieg.blogspot.com/) the founder of NY:MIEG (New York Media Information Exchange Group) and have been shamed into finally launching my own blog and sharing my fascinating life, work and observations with the cyber world.

Bill tells me that I can write as much or as little as I like, so here's a few sentences about July 9th, 2007 in the world of Karen Levine, founder of Triple Play Consulting: Media, Marketing & Strategy.

My most active engagement is for the research arm of a Japanese advertising agency. I don't actually know the end client, but I think that is a good thing. It keeps me honest and makes things a little more mysterious. I have been asked to identify and tap six experts across four countries who are knowledgeable about the high definition business projector market. These are the products manufactured by Epson, Hitachi and the like. I have made good progress identifying and reaching out to experts in the U.S. and have made some progress in the U.K. My next priority is France and Germany.

However, in the meantime, I am focusing my efforts on creating the survey. I have received the English translation of a survey written by the Japanese agency. My immediate task is to "translate" this into American English and an easy-to-answer survey without losing any of the information my client wants to gather.

I have made good progress but was interrupted today by the need to replace the brake light on my car within 48 hours of being pulled over Saturday night. And it was a lovely 90 degree day to do it. I didn't mind the logistics of it so much as having to give up my perfect, perfect parking spot and ending up at a metered location.

So, I'll refuel now with an organic dinner entree of some kind and revisit my survey in time to send it to Tokyo for an initial review. Working with a Japanese client is like collaborating with the tooth fairy or the elves who helped out that cobbler. I e-mail the work I've completed before I head off to bed, and when I awake, I am treated to comments and insights from across a number of ponds.

Much more to say. We'll leave that for another installment of Karen Levine on Media.